Impacting Public Health Through Strategic Multi-sector Partnerships

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2022

The leadership of El Paso County Public Health (EPCPH) has historically engaged community partners across all sectors in the work of developing a comprehensive plan to meet community health needs. COVID-19 elevated the need for public health to develop an infrastructure that has the capacity to forecast emergent needs and respond in agile and comprehensive ways. The creation of the El Paso County and Colorado Springs Vaccine Consortium provided an innovative opportunity to strengthen the infrastructure through collaboration. The Vaccine Consortium, led by EPCPH, consists of multidisciplinary traditional and non-traditional partners from local government, regional emergency management, healthcare systems and partners, and high-level decision makers that can commit resources, provide education, and offer solutions. A defining characteristic of the work is the focus on the development of intergovernmental partnerships representing vital partnerships between Public Health and federal, state, and local entities. The overarching goal of the Consortium was to identify and engage key stakeholders and community leaders in the development of a coordinated COVID-19 response strategy. To effectively serve the most populous county in Colorado, the Consortium leveraged community expertise to provide equitable access to the vaccine as well as provide coordinated, credible information on non-pharmaceutical and therapeutics.